Updated 11:24 pm, Thursday, March 28, 2013

At the time, the former councilman was still licking his political wounds from a heartbreaking — and surprising — loss in the 2012 Republican primary for Bexar County tax assessor-collector. A few months later, however, the two North Side Republicans ran into each other at a local diner. Clamp asked if the gig was still available, because he had reconsidered and decided he wanted the post.

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Last week, Clamp got his wish, when Gov. Rick Perry officially appointed him to head the RMA board, but it's an honor akin to being named emperor of the Island of Misfit Toys: You're not quite sure whether to offer congratulations or condolences.

Nearly a decade after the RMA was set up to be the tolling authority for Bexar County, not a single tollway has been built in this metropolitan area. At least for the foreseeable future, the RMA is a car frame without a body, an agency in long-term limbo, with no staff, no funding sources and no pending projects.

The RMA can't (or probably shouldn't) disappear, because it might serve a crucial purpose someday. But it can't operate at full strength, because it has little to do but bide its time.

Clamp comes to the RMA with transportation experience gained from his days serving — alongside Wolff — on the Metropolitan Planning Organization board. Given what he's walking into at the RMA, it also helps that Clamp is on a first-name basis with political frustration.

Before joining City Council in 2007, Clamp — a CPA with a master's in finance — endured a 2003 upset loss to gung-ho upstart Chip Haass. After serving two terms as a North Side thorn in the side of Mayors Phil Hardberger and Julián Castro, Clamp left the council in 2011, filled with political ambition. He seriously considered a run for the railroad commissioner seat that Elizabeth Ames Jones was vacating, before settling on a campaign for tax assessor-collector.

Even with endorsements from a who's who of local Republicans, Clamp fell to political newcomer Robert Stovall by 78 votes out of more than 53,000 cast.

With his political dreams at least temporarily stalled, Clamp has elected to chair an agency whose goals are similarly stalled, at least until environmental impact studies are completed on tolling plans for U.S. 281 and Loop 1604.

The uncertain future of the RMA — and the controversy that inevitably accompanies tolling — explains why board chairman candidates Fernando Reyes, a local businessman, and Rebecca Simmons, the recently ousted appeals-court judge, both quietly decided to bow out of the appointment process last year.

Clamp said his first priority is to “figure out where we are in terms of financials, projects, and any other strategic initiatives we're working on, so I can at least ascertain where we need to go from here.”

Over the last year, the Commissioners Court has floated a series of strategies to downsize the tolling authority. One option, pursuing state legislation that would give the county control over the RMA, was scrapped when Perry made it clear that he didn't want to give up his power to appoint a board chairman.

In January, commissioners settled on a de facto takeover that eliminated the RMA staff and put Bexar County Manager David Smith in charge of operations for the tolling authority.

East Side activist Tommy Calvert recently decided to step down from the board in the wake of the shake-up at the agency.

“I wish John (Clamp) all the luck in the world, but I don't know if the RMA is functional anymore,” Calvert said. “Whatever you thought of the RMA staff, at least they had a lot of institutional knowledge.”

Wolff argues that the agency will have a key role to play in San Antonio's transportation future.

“It's a powerful organization and at some point it will become a much more powerful organization, because I think toll roads are inevitable,” he said. “But it can be a long, drawn-out process.”